Dick:
I have scanned some of the Baldwin magazine articles for you. Please PM your email so I can send the scanned pages.
There was a great book published on the WD 160 class 2-8-0's. I saw a copy of it years ago, printed in England. It described how there were several boiler explosions of these locomotives, because many of the crown sheet staybolts only extended A FEW threads into the crown sheet.

Kevin K.

Kevin,

Thanks. PM sent.

There was also a Sep-Oct 1986 Ron Zeil Article in L&RP, "Final Wanderings of the G.I. 2-8-0s."

I've seen the story of deficiencies in the S160s boilers, but it isn't true. I have a copy of the 15 page specifications that BLW provided to the ARR for their variation of the S160, which was adapted from the standard specs. Both use the same boiler. It says, "Each boiler shall be tested in conformance with the A.S.M.E. Locomotive Boiler Code," and "Boiler built to comply in all respects with the A.S.M.E. Boiler Code, except that the shell shall have safety factor of 4."

My best understanding is that the failures were due to a single water glass of a design not familiar to the British crews and crews with limited experience. In one, one of the rods to the water glass shut-off was damaged and the valve wasn't fully opened. The British used quarter-turn cocks and the crew wasn't familiar with the multi-turn screw-type valves on the S160s. I believe I also remember seeing that the crown sheet plug on one locomotive failed to melt in a low water condition.

Kevin Kohls scanned three articles on the USATC Consolidations and an Alaska Railroad 4-8-4 from the Baldwin Magazine so we could add them to our ARR 557 archives. I started to post them here, but they are probably more appropriate to the Railfanning forum. I'm posting them there under the same subject. Shared with his permission.

Corrrection to Nick's post above: the Index to The Baldwin Locomotives magazine was compiled in 1948 by Thomas T. Taber III, not Paul T. Warner. There are at least three copies in the RRMPa Library. The same index is reprinted in a slightly different format in Taber's Railroad Periodicals Index, 1831-1999 (The Author: 1999).